There’s A Case To Be Made That Steph Curry Has Made A Deal With The Devil

Sean Gardner. Getty Images.

If you were to close your eyes and someone asked you what are the biggest storylines of the early NBA season, what do you think most people would answer? There's Wemby, Dame/Giannis, LeBron still not showing signs of aging, the Nuggets looking like there won't be a title hangover, the Celts/Sixers both off to great starts, things like that right?

While those things are all true, how many people would answer Steph Curry? We love to talk about how crazy it is that LeBron never ages and is still a complete force on the court even in Year 21. Well, are people aware of what is currently going on in GS with Steph Curry in his age 35 and Year 15 season? Please do yourself a favor and look at this

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Think back to 2015-16 when Steph Curry became the first player ever to win a unanimous MVP. Here's how his numbers looked back then

34 minutes / 30.1 points / 5.4 rebounds / 6.7 assists / 2.1 steals / 50% FG% / 45% 3P% / 5.1 3PM

Nasty production. A well-warranted MVP if I've ever seen one. 

This year? At this age? I don't give a shit about "small sample", Steph has been even better

We live in a world where Steph has started the season with

30.9/4.8/4.3/ on 53/47% with 5.9 3PM

Look at those numbers above in that graphic. 38.7% on pullup threes? A TS% over 70%?? Steph's career-best before that was 67.5%. My brain keeps going back to what Steve Kerr said the other day

Yup. This sure seems like a familiar team so far. The Warriors Dynasty is clearly not even close to being dead and it's pretty obvious why that is. 

GS is 6-2, they are 3-0 vs teams .500 or better, and already have 5 wins on the road after only winning 11 road games all of last season. Why do we think that is? Because we're witnessing prehaps the best version of Steph Curry we've ever seen

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I think most people would say that as a player, Steph's game is set up to age rather gracefully. It's not like he relies on crazy athleticism or anything that might leave him as he ages. It's not like he's going to forget how to shoot. Despite his age, he's still probably the best-conditioned player in the entire league, and to not only be showing no signs of regression at age 35 but to actually be playing the best basketball of your life is absurd. It's shit that really only LeBron has ever done. 

It makes no logical sense that a player should be having a better season than his unanimous MVP season almost 8 years later (7 really since he missed all but 5 games in 2019-20). Perhaps we should have seen something like this coming considering Curry was pretty legit in his 56 games last year, but this has been a different level to start the season. Did anyone seriously think Curry would be playing his way firmly into the MVP conversation at this point in his career? Because make no mistake about it, he's probably top 3 right now. 

Maybe it's because we're so used to Steph doing Steph things that we're sort of numb to his start to the year. This would be silly to do because so far we're witnessing the greatest scoring season in NBA history for a 35 year old player. KD is close as well, but his shooting isn't anywhere close when you factor in 3s. That's what makes Steph's start so insane

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Hell, even Jordan only averaged 28.7 in his age 34 season before he retired in 1998 (missing his age 35 season). We've truly never seen anything like this.

And trust me, I wish this wasn't the case. While I thoroughly enjoy watching Steph play, I can admit I'm still triggered by what he did to my favorite basketball team in Game 4 of the 2022 NBA Finals. He stole a ring while ripping the Celts hearts out and shoving it right down their throats. But even I can't sit here and not be in awe of what he's doing in 2023-24, and it should probably be a bigger deal.